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Beyond the Farthest Star (episode)
Kirk's crew come across an ancient derelict vessel, but something is still living inside it. Summary En route to investigate, the ''Enterprise'' suddenly experiences severe hypergravitational effects from Questar M-17's negative star mass. The starship gets pulled towards the remnants of the star, but manages to obtain a standard orbit. The crew discover a huge damaged pod ship of unknown alien origin. It turns out this vessel is the source of the radio emissions. Kirk orders Sulu to put the Enterprise alongside the ancient starship, and then he asks Spock for readings on the ship. Spock reports that the temperature is absolute zero and that there is no energy in the ship to support life or send the radio messages. The only thing detected is a magnetic reading that could be normal for the metal used in the ship's construction. To Kirk's questions as to whether the metal or design can be identified, Spock answers, "Negative to both, Captain. Unknown alloy, harder and lighter than any registered metal. It is not a recorded galactic starship design. Retro analysis of the ships spectrum dates it as having been in orbit here for slightly more than 300 million years." Kirk decides to board the beautifully-designed starship with Scotty and Dr. McCoy, so they strap on their life support belts and beam over. The ship appears to have been built by an insectoid race. Spock remarks, "The hexagonal shape of the windows suggests a similarity to natural insect designs of Earth, the honeycombs of bees; the individual cells are shaped precisely like this." Scotty marvels, "Would you look at this, now. This metal isn't cast or rolled; it was drawn into filaments and spun." Kirk is fascinated and adds, "Like a spider spins its web." Making a scientific observation, Spock says, "A lighter and stronger material than anything we have now." Kirk then notices something about the ship and remarks, "Look, every pod, they've all been burst open." Scotty agrees, "Aye, from the inside from the looks of them." McCoy conjectures, "Must have been some accident to get almost every pod." Spock refutes this statement, "Accidents seldom have such system, Dr. McCoy. I believe we must consider the alternative possibility. That the crew of this ship destroyed her… themselves." Kirk contacts the Enterprise and reaches Lieutenant Uhura. Kirk asks her, "Lieutenant, are you still getting that radio signal from this ship?" She replies, "Negative Captain. It stopped transmitting when you beamed aboard." Kirk then requests she keep a transporter lock on them because he has decided to investigate the inside of the strange spaceship. Spock registers a slight energy reading on his tricorder. He tells Kirk that it seems the ship is receiving the energy the away team is generating and storing it up. The whole ship was made for just that purpose. When the Enterprise crew enter the command center of the ship, a ship's log starts playing, explaining that the original crew tried to crash into the star remnant to destroy a malevolent entity that was terrorizing the crew. When the landing party beams back aboard Enterprise, the malevolent entity uses the transporter to beam to the ship. It takes over control of the ship's systems, using Enterprise's phasers to destroy the insectoid craft. It turns out that the entity wants to use the Enterprise to take it away from the dead star. But Spock has placed the navigation console inside a static shield, so the entity cannot steer the ship. However, the entity has taken the crew hostage. Kirk acts as if he is obeying the entity, but actually plans to use the slingshot effect to break out of orbit. The entity, thinking Kirk is going to crash the Enterprise into the star, flees for its life while the Enterprise frees itself from Questar's gravitational pull, leaving the creature to orbit around the star forever, wailing in terrible, endless loneliness. Memorable Quotes "Look, every pod, they've all been burst open." "Aye, from the inside from the looks of them." "Must have been some accident to get almost every pod." "Accidents seldom have such system, Dr. McCoy. I believe we must consider the alternative possibility that the crew of this ship destroyed her... themselves." :- Kirk, Scotty, McCoy, and Spock "The whole ship is designed to receive and store energy." : - Scotty "A physiological symptom of latent primal superstition. The fear of primitive people confronting something unknown to them." : - Spock "Compared to the people who built this ship, we are primitives. Even you Mr. Spock." : - Kirk "Danger! Danger! The dead star...we are being drawn to it! Rather than carry this malevolent life form to other worlds, we have decided to destroy our own ship! There is no other answer! If you understand this message, you are protected only for this moment in this room! This thing, it wants..." : - Insectoid Captain "Jim, you don't think that's going to help us. Whatever that thing is, it survived a millennia in a dead hulk. All it has to do here is outlast us and just take over." "No. It must held by the magnetic force of the dead star. And it needs a starship to break free and a crew to man it." "You are correct, Captain James T. Kirk. And I have the starship I've waited for so long, so terribly long!" : - McCoy, Kirk and Magnetic organism "You will now remove the static shield from the navigation console, Captain James T. Kirk." "You have shut down life-support systems and endangered members of my crew. Restore those systems first!" "All non-essential systems are extinguished. You will obey me." "And if I refuse?" "Obey me!" : - Magnetic organism and Kirk - "Stop! You'll hurt him!" "Remove the static shield from the warp drive controls! Do it now!!" "No, Captain!" "I'll obey! Let him go!" : - Kirk, Magnetic organism and Spock "You will leave this orbit and plot course to galactic coordinates zero-three-six-point-two-three-one!" "That's the heart of the galaxy, Captain!" "Plot the course, Mr. Sulu." "Captain, this symbiote can reproduce itself by mitosis and take over every starship we encounter. It can control computer centers...whole planets." "I'm aware of that, Mr. Spock." "Complete repairs! Obey me!" : - Magnetic organism, Sulu, Kirk and Spock "No! Accelerate! Do not destroy the ship! Obey! Obey!! OBEY!!!" : - Magnetic organism "Is it gone?" "Affirmative. It fled the ship and it thought we would crash into the dead star." "Don't leave me alone! Please! Please! So lonely...!" : - Kirk, Spock and Magnetic organism Background information * This episode was penned by Samuel A. Peeples, who previously wrote the second Star Trek pilot . * The title of this episode was apparently lifted from one of ' lesser-known science fiction novels. * DS9 Season 6 had a similarly-named episode entitled: . * Almost all sources list the original air date for this episode as . This was the original air date in Los Angeles only, as it was preempted there because of George Takei's run for City Council and "equal time" issues. The actual air date is (or seven years to the day from the premiere of TOS). * As the first episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series to air, it was also the first episode of the franchise to air in the 1970s. * A number of sources, beginning with the Star Trek Concordance by Bjo Trimble, incorrectly list the stardate of this episode as 5521.3 * A limited-edition collector's animation cel inspired by this episode was once available from Tuttle Enterprises. The cel was number "ST-16." * This episode was adapted for a novelization, written by Alan Dean Foster, published in Ballantine Books' Star Trek Log 1. * Lieutenant Kyle reappears from the original series, though voiced by James Doohan, replacing John Winston. Kyle has grown a mustache by this point, which foreshadows John Winston sporting a goatee in . * This episode marks the first and only use of the "Automatic Bridge Defense System". The device was never seen again in any subsequent series. * When Scotty is pinned beneath the engineering casing, for a brief moment he is shown wearing the insignia of a Captain. * When the cutter beams cut the hinge of the Core hatch trapped on Scotty, the sound-effect it makes when it hits the floor is a common sound-effect from The Flintstones. loud "BOUMP" sound * The cutting beam itself emanates from an instrument that looks almost exactly like the hand-held spectrum analyzer used by Spock in the TOS episode . * The pod ship featured in this episode was also used in the Ships of the Line book, made up of images from the calendars. Video and DVD releases *UK VHS release (CIC Video): Volume 1, catalog number VHR 2535, *As part of the ''The Animated Series'' DVD collection. Links and references Starring *William Shatner as James T. Kirk *Leonard Nimoy as Spock :And *DeForest Kelley as Leonard McCoy Also starring *George Takei as Hikaru Sulu *Nichelle Nichols as Uhura *James Doohan as: ** Montgomery Scott ** Kyle ** Ancient insectoid ** Magnetic organism ** Sciences division officer Background characters * Arex * Christine Chapel * Operations division officer References 300 million years ago; absolute zero; artificial gravity; automatic bridge defense system; bee; brain; cargo hold; cutter beam; core hatch; corpuscle; Earth normal; engineering core; flank speed; force field; G1 star; galactic plane; galactic coordinate; gravimetric slingshot; honeycomb; hypergravity; insect; insectoid; insectoid ship; life support belt; life support system; log entry; magnetic organism; memory bank; mitosis; mutual override; navigation console; negative mass; neutron star; primate; probability; Questar M-17; radio; self-destruct device; slingshot effect; spectra analysis; spider; star chart; static shield; symbiotic lifeform; warp drive }} Category:TAS episodes cs:Beyond the Farthest Star de:Das körperlose Wesen es:Beyond the Farthest Star fr:Beyond the Farthest Star nl:Beyond the Farthest Star pl:Beyond the Farthest Star